Spanish in the United States
Encyclopedia
Spanish is the second most used language in the United States
. There are more Spanish speakers in the United States than there are speakers of Chinese, French
, Italian, Hawaiian
, and the Native American languages combined. According to the 2009 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by over 35.5 million people aged five or older. There are 45 million Hispanophones
who speak Spanish as a first or second language, as well as six million Spanish students, composing the largest national Spanish-speaking community
outside of Mexico
. Roughly half of all U.S. Spanish speakers also speak English "very well", based on the self-assessment Census question respondents.
in 1513. In 1565, the Spaniards, by way of Juan Ponce de León, founded St. Augustine, Florida
, and as of the early 1800s, it became the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental United States. The oldest city in all of the U.S. territory, as of 1898, is San Juan, capital of Puerto Rico, where Juan Ponce De León was its first governor and from where he left towards Florida seeking the fountain of youth, gold and slaves.
Historically, the Spanish-speaking population increased because of territorial annexation of lands claimed earlier by the Spanish empire
and by wars with Mexico and by land purchases, while modern factors continue increasing the size of this population.
was sold to the United States
, its Spanish and French
inhabitants became U.S. citizens, and continued to speak Spanish and French.
as the state of Coahuila y Texas. A large influx of USA Americans soon followed, originally with the approval of Mexico's President. In 1836, the now largely "American" Texans, fought a war of independence from the central government of Mexico and established the Republic of Texas. In 1846, the Republic dissolved when Texas entered the U.S.A. as a state. Per the 1850 U.S. census, fewer than 16,000 Texans were of Mexican descent, and nearly all were Spanish-speaking people who were outnumbered (six-to-one) by English-speaking settlers (both American s and other immigrant Europeans
).
Mexico lost almost half of the northern territory gained from Spain in 1821 to the United States in the Mexican-American War (1846–1848): parts of contemporary Texas, and Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming, California, Nevada, and Utah. Although the lost territory was sparsely populated, the thousands of Spanish-speaking Mexicans resultantly became U.S. citizens. The war-ending Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
(1848) does not explicitly address language.
, the United States took control of Cuba
and Puerto Rico
as American territories. In 1902, Cuba became independent from the United States, while Puerto Rico became a U.S. Territory. Spanish is Puerto Rico's first language
, and its citizens hold statutory U.S. citizenship
.
Immigration to the United States of Spanish-speaking Cubans began because of Cuba's political instability upon achieving independence. The deposition of Fulgencio Batista
's dictatorship and the ascension of Fidel Castro
's government in 1959 increased Cuban immigration to the United States, hence there are some one million Cubans in the United States, most settled in southern and central Florida, while other Cubans
live in the Northeastern United States; most are fluent in Spanish.
Likewise the migration of Spanish-speaking Nicaraguans also began as a result of political instability during the end of the 1970s and the 1980s. The uprising of the Sandinista revolution which toppled the Somoza dictatorship in 1979 caused many Nicaraguans to migrate particularly from those opposing the Sandinistas. Throughout the 1980s with the U.S. supported Contra War (or Contra-revolutionary war) which continued up until 1988, and the economic collapse of the country many more Nicaraguans migrated to the United States amongst other countries. The states of the United States where most Nicaraguans migrated to include Florida, California and Texas.
Many Puerto Ricans
have migrated to New York City, increasing its Spanish-speaking population. Millions of Puerto Rican Americans
living in the U.S. mainland are fluent in Spanish. In Hawaii, where Puerto Rican farm laborers and Mexican ranchers have settled since the late 19th century, 7.0 per cent of the islands' people are either Hispanic or Hispanophone or both.
Note: The following table uses data from the 2004 American Community Survey from the United States Census Bureau
Although the United States has no official language
, English is the most common. Most state and federal government agencies use English. Many states, such as California, require bilingual legislated notices and official documents, in Spanish and English, and other commonly used languages. In the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Spanish is the official and most commonly used language. Throughout the history of the Southwest United States, the controversial issues of language as part of cultural rights and bilingual state government representation has caused socio-cultural friction between Anglophones and Hispanophones. Currently, Spanish is the most widely taught second language
in the United States.
By 1870, English-speaking Americans were a majority in California; in 1879, the state promulgated a new constitution under which all official proceedings were to be conducted exclusively in English, a clause that remained in effect until 1966. In 1986, California voters added a new constitutional clause, by referendum
, stating that:
Spanish remains widely spoken throughout the state, and many government forms, documents, and services are bilingual, in English and Spanish. And although all official proceedings are to be conducted in English:
of 1853 was part of the New Mexico Territory
until 1863, when the western half was made into the Arizona Territory
. The area of the former Gadsden Purchase contained a majority of Spanish-speakers until the 1940s, although the Tucson area had a higher ratio of anglophones (including Mexican-Americans who were fluent in English).
Because of its relative isolation from other Spanish speaking areas over most of its 400 year existence, New Mexico Spanish, and in particular the Spanish of northern New Mexico and Colorado has retained many elements of 16th and 17th century Spanish and has developed its own vocabulary. In addition, it contains many Nahuatl
words as well as words from the Pueblo
languages of the upper Rio Grande Valley
, Mexican-Spanish words (mexicanismos), and borrowings from English. Grammatical changes include the loss of the second person verb form, changes in verb endings, particularly in the preterite
, and partial merging of the second and third conjugations.
(4.3%), Japanese (3.7%), and Chinese (2.4%) although the totals remain relatively small in relation to the total U.S population.
s, it is fashionable to variously mix Spanish and English, thereby producing Spanglish
. Spanglish is the name for the admixture of English words and phrases to Spanish for effective communication.
The new generation of American Hispanics want to preserve knowing and using Spanish as equal to learning and using English. The small Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española
(North American Academy of the Spanish Language) tracks the developments of the Spanish spoken in the United States, and the influences of English upon it.
Language experts distinguish the following varieties of the Spanish spoken in the United States:
Analogously, many Spanish words now are standard American English. For a detailed list of borrowed words, see American English
.
, Telemundo
, and Azteca América
.
Moreover, because of the North American Free Trade Agreement
, it is common for many American manufacturers to use trilingual product labeling using English, French and Spanish. Besides the businesses that always have catered to Hispanophone immigrants, a small, but increasing, number of mainstream American retailers now advertise bilingually in Spanish-speaking areas and offer bilingual, English-Spanish customer services.
The State of the Union Address
es and other presidential speeches are translated to Spanish, following the precedent set by the Bill Clinton
administration. Official Spanish translations are available at Whitehouse.gov. Moreover, non-Hispanic politicians fluent in Spanish speak in Spanish to Hispanic majority constituencies. There are 500 Spanish newspapers, 152 magazines, and 205 publishers in the United States; magazine and local television advertising expenditures for the Hispanic market have increased much from 1999 to 2003, with growth of 58 percent and 43 percent, respectively.
This guarantees Spanish's survival in the United States, yet, historically, the immigrant's original languages tend to disappear or become reduced through generational assimilation
. Spanish disappeared in several countries and U.S. territories during the 20th century, notably in the Pacific Island countries of Guam
, Micronesia, Palau
, the Northern Marianas islands, and the Marshall Islands
. In the Philippines, it is spoken by a minority of the population (only around 3,000,000).
The English-only movement
seeks to establish English as the sole official language of the United States. Generally, they exert political public pressure upon Hispanophone immigrants to learn English and speak it publicly; as universities, business, and the professions use English, there is much social pressure to learn English for upward socio-economic mobility.
Generally, Hispanic Americans (13.4% of the 2002 population) are bilingual to a degree. A Simmons Market Research survey recorded that 19 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population speak only Spanish, 9.0 percent speak only English, 55 percent have limited English proficiency, and 17 percent are fully English-Spanish bilingual.
Intergenerational transmission of Spanish is a more accurate indicator of Spanish's future in the United States than raw statistical numbers of Hispanophone immigrants. Although Latin American immigrants hold varying English proficiency levels, almost all second-generation Hispanic Americans speak English, yet about 50 percent speak Spanish at home. Two-thirds of third-generation Mexican American
s speak only English at home.
Calvin Veltman
undertook, for the National Center for Education Statistics and for the Hispanic Policy Development Project, the most complete study of English language adoption by Hispanophone immigrants. Mr Veltman's language shift
studies document high bilingualism rates and subsequent adoption of English as the preferred language of Hispanics, particularly by the young and the native-born. The complete set of these studies' demographic projections postulates the near-complete assimilation of a given Hispanophone immigrant cohort within two generations. Although his study based itself upon a large 1976 sample from the Bureau of the Census (which has not been repeated), data from the 1990 Census tend to confirm the great Anglicization of the U.S. Hispanic population.
In 1610, Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá
published his Historia de Nuevo México (History of New Mexico).
19th century
In 1880, José Martí
moved to New York City.
Eusebio Chacón published El hijo de la tempestad in 1892.
20th century
Federico García Lorca
wrote his collection of poems, Poeta en Nueva York, and the two plays Así que pasen cinco años and El público while living in New York. Giannina Braschi
wrote the Latino postmodern poetry classic El imperio de los sueños in Spanish in New York. José Vasconcelos
and Juan Ramón Jiménez
were both exile
d to the United States.
In her autobiography When I was Puerto Rican (1993), Esmeralda Santiago recounts her childhood on the island during the 1950s and her family's subsequent move to New York City, when she was 13 years old. Originally written in English, the book is an example of New York Rican literature.
Chicano period
Languages in the United States
English is the de facto national language of the United States, with 82% of the population claiming it as a mother tongue, and some 96% claiming to speak it "well" or "very well." However, no official language exists at the federal level...
. There are more Spanish speakers in the United States than there are speakers of Chinese, French
French in the United States
The French language is spoken as a minority language in the United States. According to year 2000 census figures, 1.6 million Americans over the age of five speak the language at home; making French the fourth most-spoken language in the country behind English, Spanish, and Chinese...
, Italian, Hawaiian
Hawaiian language
The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
, and the Native American languages combined. According to the 2009 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by over 35.5 million people aged five or older. There are 45 million Hispanophones
Hispanic and Latino Americans
Hispanic or Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the Hispanic countries of Latin America or in Spain, and in general all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino.1990 Census of Population and Housing: A self-designated classification for people whose origins...
who speak Spanish as a first or second language, as well as six million Spanish students, composing the largest national Spanish-speaking community
Hispanophone
Hispanophone or Hispanosphere denotes Spanish language speakers and the Spanish-speaking world. The word derives from the Latin political name of the Iberian Peninsula, Hispania, which comprised basically the territory of the modern states of Spain and Portugal.Hispanophones are estimated at...
outside of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Roughly half of all U.S. Spanish speakers also speak English "very well", based on the self-assessment Census question respondents.
History
Spanish was the language spoken by the first permanent European settlers in North America. Spanish arrived in the territory of the contemporary United States with Ponce de LeónJuan Ponce de León
Juan Ponce de León was a Spanish explorer. He became the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish crown. He led the first European expedition to Florida, which he named...
in 1513. In 1565, the Spaniards, by way of Juan Ponce de León, founded St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine is a city in the northeast section of Florida and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United...
, and as of the early 1800s, it became the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental United States. The oldest city in all of the U.S. territory, as of 1898, is San Juan, capital of Puerto Rico, where Juan Ponce De León was its first governor and from where he left towards Florida seeking the fountain of youth, gold and slaves.
Historically, the Spanish-speaking population increased because of territorial annexation of lands claimed earlier by the Spanish empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
and by wars with Mexico and by land purchases, while modern factors continue increasing the size of this population.
Louisiana Purchase
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, land claimed by Spain encompassed a large part of the contemporary U.S. territory, including the French colony of Louisiana that was under Spanish control from 1763 to 1800, and then part of the United States since 1803. When LouisianaLouisiana (New Spain)
Louisiana was the name of an administrative district of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1764 to 1803 that represented territory west of the Mississippi River basin, plus New Orleans...
was sold to the United States
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S...
, its Spanish and French
Cajun
Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...
inhabitants became U.S. citizens, and continued to speak Spanish and French.
Annexation of Texas and the Mexican-American War
In 1821, after Mexico's War of Independence from Spain, Texas was part of the United Mexican StatesMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
as the state of Coahuila y Texas. A large influx of USA Americans soon followed, originally with the approval of Mexico's President. In 1836, the now largely "American" Texans, fought a war of independence from the central government of Mexico and established the Republic of Texas. In 1846, the Republic dissolved when Texas entered the U.S.A. as a state. Per the 1850 U.S. census, fewer than 16,000 Texans were of Mexican descent, and nearly all were Spanish-speaking people who were outnumbered (six-to-one) by English-speaking settlers (both American s and other immigrant Europeans
European ethnic groups
The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
).
Mexico lost almost half of the northern territory gained from Spain in 1821 to the United States in the Mexican-American War (1846–1848): parts of contemporary Texas, and Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming, California, Nevada, and Utah. Although the lost territory was sparsely populated, the thousands of Spanish-speaking Mexicans resultantly became U.S. citizens. The war-ending Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...
(1848) does not explicitly address language.
Spanish-American War
In 1898, consequent to the Spanish-American WarSpanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
, the United States took control of Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
as American territories. In 1902, Cuba became independent from the United States, while Puerto Rico became a U.S. Territory. Spanish is Puerto Rico's first language
First language
A first language is the language a person has learned from birth or within the critical period, or that a person speaks the best and so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity...
, and its citizens hold statutory U.S. citizenship
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
.
Modern migration
The relatively recent but large influx of Spanish speakers to the United States has increased the overall total of Spanish-speakers in the country, resultantly they are majorities and large minorities in many political districts, especially in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, the U.S. states bordering Mexico.Immigration to the United States of Spanish-speaking Cubans began because of Cuba's political instability upon achieving independence. The deposition of Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....
's dictatorship and the ascension of Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
's government in 1959 increased Cuban immigration to the United States, hence there are some one million Cubans in the United States, most settled in southern and central Florida, while other Cubans
Cubans
Cubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
live in the Northeastern United States; most are fluent in Spanish.
Likewise the migration of Spanish-speaking Nicaraguans also began as a result of political instability during the end of the 1970s and the 1980s. The uprising of the Sandinista revolution which toppled the Somoza dictatorship in 1979 caused many Nicaraguans to migrate particularly from those opposing the Sandinistas. Throughout the 1980s with the U.S. supported Contra War (or Contra-revolutionary war) which continued up until 1988, and the economic collapse of the country many more Nicaraguans migrated to the United States amongst other countries. The states of the United States where most Nicaraguans migrated to include Florida, California and Texas.
Many Puerto Ricans
Puerto Rican people
A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...
have migrated to New York City, increasing its Spanish-speaking population. Millions of Puerto Rican Americans
Puerto Ricans in the United States
Stateside Puerto Ricans are American citizens of Puerto Rican origin, including those who migrated from Puerto Rico to the United States and those who were born outside of Puerto Rico in the United States...
living in the U.S. mainland are fluent in Spanish. In Hawaii, where Puerto Rican farm laborers and Mexican ranchers have settled since the late 19th century, 7.0 per cent of the islands' people are either Hispanic or Hispanophone or both.
Current status
In total, there were 35,468,501 people in the United States who speak Spanish as their primary language at home, including 3.5 million in the territory of Puerto Rico, where Spanish is the primary language. Over half of the country's Spanish speakers reside in California, Texas, and Florida alone.Note: The following table uses data from the 2004 American Community Survey from the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
| State/Territory | Spanish-speaking population | Percentage of population |
|---|---|---|
| Puerto Rico Puerto Rico Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an... |
3,900,128 | 95.21% |
| New Mexico | 823,352 | 43.27% |
| California | 12,442,626 | 34.72% |
| Texas | 7,781,211 | 34.63% |
| Arizona | 1,608,698 | 28.00% |
| Nevada | 445,622 | 19.27% |
| Florida | 3,304,832 | 19.01% |
| New York | 3,076,697 | 15.96% |
| New Jersey | 1,134,033 | 13.89% |
| Illinois | 1,516,560 | 12.70% |
| Colorado | 545,112 | 12.35% |
| Rhode Island | 100,227 | 9.96% |
| Utah | 216,327 | 9.40% |
| Connecticut | 308,863 | 9.35% |
| Oregon | 293,840 | 8.47% |
| District of Columbia | 45,023 | 8.24% |
| Idaho | 103,686 | 7.66% |
| Washington | 431,021 | 7.20% |
| Georgia | 610,402 | 7.04% |
| Massachusetts | 411,192 | 6.80% |
| Kansas | 169,376 | 6.59% |
| Delaware | 51,762 | 6.50% |
| North Carolina | 532,553 | 6.45% |
| Nebraska | 98,211 | 5.99% |
| Virginia | 412,416 | 5.78% |
| Maryland | 298,072 | 5.68% |
| Oklahoma | 173,552 | 5.22% |
| Arkansas | 116,396 | 4.45% |
| Indiana | 254,219 | 4.32% |
| Wisconsin | 217,550 | 4.18% |
| Wyoming | 19,830 | 4.12% |
| Pennsylvania | 436,254 | 3.72% |
| South Carolina | 148,345 | 3.68% |
| Alaska | 22,649 | 3.64% |
| Minnesota | 171,042 | 3.55% |
| Iowa | 97,876 | 3.51% |
| Michigan | 292,996 | 3.10% |
| Tennessee | 171,646 | 3.04% |
| Louisiana | 106,872 | 2.68% |
| Alabama | 107,806 | 2.50% |
| Missouri | 129,329 | 2.37% |
| Ohio | 230,467 | 2.15% |
| New Hampshire | 26,607 | 2.14% |
| Kentucky | 80,450 | 2.05% |
| South Dakota | 14,403 | 1.98% |
| Mississippi | 46,561 | 1.72% |
| Montana | 13,458 | 1.51% |
| Hawaii | 17,442 | 1.50% |
| North Dakota | 8,853 | 1.48% |
| West Virginia | 18,207 | 1.06% |
| Vermont | 5,950 | 1.01% |
| Maine | 12,576 | 1.00% |
Although the United States has no official language
Official language
An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
, English is the most common. Most state and federal government agencies use English. Many states, such as California, require bilingual legislated notices and official documents, in Spanish and English, and other commonly used languages. In the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Spanish is the official and most commonly used language. Throughout the history of the Southwest United States, the controversial issues of language as part of cultural rights and bilingual state government representation has caused socio-cultural friction between Anglophones and Hispanophones. Currently, Spanish is the most widely taught second language
Second language
A second language or L2 is any language learned after the first language or mother tongue. Some languages, often called auxiliary languages, are used primarily as second languages or lingua francas ....
in the United States.
California
California's first constitution recognized Spanish language rights:By 1870, English-speaking Americans were a majority in California; in 1879, the state promulgated a new constitution under which all official proceedings were to be conducted exclusively in English, a clause that remained in effect until 1966. In 1986, California voters added a new constitutional clause, by referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
, stating that:
Spanish remains widely spoken throughout the state, and many government forms, documents, and services are bilingual, in English and Spanish. And although all official proceedings are to be conducted in English:
Arizona
In Arizona, English is the official state language as of 2006. Historically, however, the state (like its southwestern neighbors) has had close linguistic and cultural ties with Mexico. The state outside the Gadsden PurchaseGadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase is a region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that was purchased by the United States in a treaty signed by James Gadsden, the American ambassador to Mexico at the time, on December 30, 1853. It was then ratified, with changes, by the U.S...
of 1853 was part of the New Mexico Territory
New Mexico Territory
thumb|right|240px|Proposed boundaries for State of New Mexico, 1850The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of...
until 1863, when the western half was made into the Arizona Territory
Arizona Territory
The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....
. The area of the former Gadsden Purchase contained a majority of Spanish-speakers until the 1940s, although the Tucson area had a higher ratio of anglophones (including Mexican-Americans who were fluent in English).
New Mexico
New Mexico is commonly thought to have Spanish as an official language alongside English because of its wide usage and legal promotion of Spanish in the state; however, the state has no official language. New Mexico's laws are promulgated bilingually in Spanish and English. Although English is the state government's paper working language, much of the daily business of the government is conducted in Spanish, particularly at the local level. Spanish has been spoken in the New Mexico-Colorado border and the contemporary U.S.–Mexico border since the 16th century.Because of its relative isolation from other Spanish speaking areas over most of its 400 year existence, New Mexico Spanish, and in particular the Spanish of northern New Mexico and Colorado has retained many elements of 16th and 17th century Spanish and has developed its own vocabulary. In addition, it contains many Nahuatl
Nahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
words as well as words from the Pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
languages of the upper Rio Grande Valley
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...
, Mexican-Spanish words (mexicanismos), and borrowings from English. Grammatical changes include the loss of the second person verb form, changes in verb endings, particularly in the preterite
Preterite
The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
, and partial merging of the second and third conjugations.
Texas
In Texas, English is conventionally used in government; the state has no official language. The continual influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants increased the import of Spanish in Texas. Even in the 21st century, Texas's counties bordering Mexico are mostly Hispanic, hence, Spanish is the common language of the region's multi-generational Mexican Americans, yet, they are more English-proficient than their southern counterparts. The Government of Texas, through Section 2054.116 of the Government Code, mandates that state agencies provide information on their websites in Spanish to assist residents who have limited English proficiency.Puerto Rico
The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico recognizes Spanish and English as official languages; Spanish is the dominant first language.Learning trends in the United States
Spanish is currently the most widely taught non-English language in U.S. secondary schools and of higher education. More than 1.4 million university students were enrolled in language courses in autumn of 2002 and Spanish is the most widely taught language in American colleges and universities with 53 percent of the total number of people enrolled, followed by French (14.4%), German (7.1%) Italian (4.5%), American Sign languageAmerican Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
(4.3%), Japanese (3.7%), and Chinese (2.4%) although the totals remain relatively small in relation to the total U.S population.
Common American English words derived from Spanish
See also List of English words of Spanish origin- Buckaroo (vaquero)
- Cafeteria (cafetería)
- Corral
- Chocolate (from NahuatlNahuatlNahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
xocoatl)
- Desperado (desesperado)
- Guerrilla
- Enamored (enamorado)
- Guitar (guitarra)
- Junta
- Aficionado
- Lasso ("lazo")
- Potato ("Patata")
- Ranch ("Rancho")
- Rodeo
- Siesta
- Tornado
- Wrangler (caballerango)
Variation
The influence of English on American Spanish is very important. In many Latino youth subcultureSubculture
In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.- Definition :...
s, it is fashionable to variously mix Spanish and English, thereby producing Spanglish
Spanglish
.Spanglish refers to the blend of Spanish and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live. The Hispanic population of the United States and the British population in Argentina use varieties of...
. Spanglish is the name for the admixture of English words and phrases to Spanish for effective communication.
The new generation of American Hispanics want to preserve knowing and using Spanish as equal to learning and using English. The small Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española
Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española
The North American Academy of the Spanish Language is an institution made up of prominent Hispanicists, including writers, poets, professors, educators and experts in the language itself, whose mission it is to support and promote the study and correct usage of Spanish in the United States,...
(North American Academy of the Spanish Language) tracks the developments of the Spanish spoken in the United States, and the influences of English upon it.
Language experts distinguish the following varieties of the Spanish spoken in the United States:
- Cuban (1959-to date): Florida (especially South FloridaSouth Florida metropolitan areaThe South Florida metropolitan area, also known as the Miami metropolitan area, and designated the Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area by the U.S...
) and New Jersey - Colombian (second half of 20th century-to date) Florida, New Jersey and New York City, also could be presence in another states.
- Dominican (1943-to date): New York City, Miami, Boston, Philadelphia and ProvidenceProvidence, Rhode IslandProvidence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
- Salvadoran-Honduran (1598-to date): New Jersey, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, BaltimoreBaltimoreBaltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, New York City and New Orleans - Nicaraguan (1979-to date): Miami, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Houston
- Isleño (Islander) (18th century-to date): St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana
- MexicanMexican SpanishMexican Spanish is a version of the Spanish language, as spoken in Mexico and in various places of Canada and the United States of America, where there are communities of Mexican origin....
(also ChicanoChicanoThe terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
or Tex-Mex [20th century]): the U.S.–Mexico border, from southern California to Texas to Illinois, but becoming ubiquitous throughout the continental United States - New MexicanNew Mexican SpanishNew Mexican Spanish is a variant or dialect of Spanish spoken in the United States, primarily in the northern part of the state of New Mexico and the southern part of the state of Colorado...
(1598-to date)- Traditional Spanish (1598-to date): Central and north-central New Mexico and south-central Colorado
- Renovador (Renovating Spanish) (20th century): The border regions of Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico, and southeastern Colorado
- Puerto Rican (1898-to date): New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and other large northeastern cities, and Illinois, OrlandoOrlando, FloridaOrlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
and TampaTampa, FloridaTampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709.... - Spanish (1939-to date): throughout the United States.
Analogously, many Spanish words now are standard American English. For a detailed list of borrowed words, see American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
.
Future of Spanish in the United States
Many factors indicate that Spanish in the United States is healthy. Living an exclusively Hispanophone life is viable in some areas because of continual immigration and prevalent Spanish-language mass media, such as UnivisiónUnivision
Univision is a Spanish-language television network in the United States. It has the largest audience of Spanish language television viewers according to Nielsen ratings. Randy Falco, COO, has been in charge of the company since the departure of Univision Communications president and CEO Joe Uva...
, Telemundo
Telemundo
Telemundo is an American television network that broadcasts in Spanish. The network is the second-largest Spanish-language content producer in the world, and the second-largest Spanish-language network in the United States, behind Univision....
, and Azteca América
Azteca América
Azteca América is a broadcast television network marketed toward Spanish-speaking families residing in the United States. As a rapidly-growing Spanish language network, Azteca América now reaches 89% of the Hispanic households in the U.S., operating in sixty-two markets nationwide. Wholly owned by...
.
Moreover, because of the North American Free Trade Agreement
North American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA is an agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement...
, it is common for many American manufacturers to use trilingual product labeling using English, French and Spanish. Besides the businesses that always have catered to Hispanophone immigrants, a small, but increasing, number of mainstream American retailers now advertise bilingually in Spanish-speaking areas and offer bilingual, English-Spanish customer services.
The State of the Union Address
State of the Union Address
The State of the Union is an annual address presented by the President of the United States to the United States Congress. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the president to outline his legislative agenda and his national priorities.The practice arises...
es and other presidential speeches are translated to Spanish, following the precedent set by the Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
administration. Official Spanish translations are available at Whitehouse.gov. Moreover, non-Hispanic politicians fluent in Spanish speak in Spanish to Hispanic majority constituencies. There are 500 Spanish newspapers, 152 magazines, and 205 publishers in the United States; magazine and local television advertising expenditures for the Hispanic market have increased much from 1999 to 2003, with growth of 58 percent and 43 percent, respectively.
Assimilation (linguistics)
Assimilation is a common phonological process by which the sound of the ending of one word blends into the sound of the beginning of the following word. This occurs when the parts of the mouth and vocal cords start to form the beginning sounds of the next word before the last sound has been...
. Spanish disappeared in several countries and U.S. territories during the 20th century, notably in the Pacific Island countries of Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
, Micronesia, Palau
Palau
Palau , officially the Republic of Palau , is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines and south of Tokyo. In 1978, after three decades as being part of the United Nations trusteeship, Palau chose independence instead of becoming part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a...
, the Northern Marianas islands, and the Marshall Islands
Marshall Islands
The Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...
. In the Philippines, it is spoken by a minority of the population (only around 3,000,000).
The English-only movement
English-only movement
English-only movement, also known as Official English movement, refers to a political movement for the use only of the English language in official government operations through the establishing of English as the only official language in the United States...
seeks to establish English as the sole official language of the United States. Generally, they exert political public pressure upon Hispanophone immigrants to learn English and speak it publicly; as universities, business, and the professions use English, there is much social pressure to learn English for upward socio-economic mobility.
Generally, Hispanic Americans (13.4% of the 2002 population) are bilingual to a degree. A Simmons Market Research survey recorded that 19 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population speak only Spanish, 9.0 percent speak only English, 55 percent have limited English proficiency, and 17 percent are fully English-Spanish bilingual.
Intergenerational transmission of Spanish is a more accurate indicator of Spanish's future in the United States than raw statistical numbers of Hispanophone immigrants. Although Latin American immigrants hold varying English proficiency levels, almost all second-generation Hispanic Americans speak English, yet about 50 percent speak Spanish at home. Two-thirds of third-generation Mexican American
Mexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...
s speak only English at home.
Calvin Veltman
Calvin Veltman
Calvin Veltman is an American sociologist, demographer and sociolinguist at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He previously worked at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh...
undertook, for the National Center for Education Statistics and for the Hispanic Policy Development Project, the most complete study of English language adoption by Hispanophone immigrants. Mr Veltman's language shift
Language shift
Language shift, sometimes referred to as language transfer or language replacement or assimilation, is the progressive process whereby a speech community of a language shifts to speaking another language. The rate of assimilation is the percentage of individuals with a given mother tongue who speak...
studies document high bilingualism rates and subsequent adoption of English as the preferred language of Hispanics, particularly by the young and the native-born. The complete set of these studies' demographic projections postulates the near-complete assimilation of a given Hispanophone immigrant cohort within two generations. Although his study based itself upon a large 1976 sample from the Bureau of the Census (which has not been repeated), data from the 1990 Census tend to confirm the great Anglicization of the U.S. Hispanic population.
American literature in Spanish
Southwest Colonial literatureIn 1610, Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá
Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá
Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá was a captain in Juan de Oñate’s expedition that first colonized New Mexico in 1598. He was born in Puebla de los Angeles. Villagra went on to college a the University of Salamanca in Spain and then moved to New Spain. In that role, Villagrá served as the unofficial...
published his Historia de Nuevo México (History of New Mexico).
19th century
In 1880, José Martí
José Martí
José Julián Martí Pérez was a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. In his short life he was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, and a political theorist. He was also a part of the Cuban...
moved to New York City.
Eusebio Chacón published El hijo de la tempestad in 1892.
20th century
Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
wrote his collection of poems, Poeta en Nueva York, and the two plays Así que pasen cinco años and El público while living in New York. Giannina Braschi
Giannina Braschi
Giannina Braschi is a Puerto Rican writer. She is credited with writing the first Spanglish novel YO-YO BOING! and the poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams , which chronicles the Latin American immigrant's experiences in the United States...
wrote the Latino postmodern poetry classic El imperio de los sueños in Spanish in New York. José Vasconcelos
José Vasconcelos
José Vasconcelos Calderón was a Mexican writer, philosopher and politician. He is one of the most influential and controversial personalities in the development of modern Mexico. His philosophy of "indigenismo" affected all aspects of Mexican sociocultural, political, and economic...
and Juan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. One of Jiménez's most important contributions to modern poetry was his advocacy of the French concept of "pure poetry."-Biography:Jiménez was born in Moguer, near Huelva, in...
were both exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
d to the United States.
In her autobiography When I was Puerto Rican (1993), Esmeralda Santiago recounts her childhood on the island during the 1950s and her family's subsequent move to New York City, when she was 13 years old. Originally written in English, the book is an example of New York Rican literature.
Chicano period
See also
- Bilingual educationBilingual educationBilingual education involves teaching academic content in two languages, in a native and secondary language with varying amounts of each language used in accordance with the program model.-Bilingual education program models:...
- Bilingualism in CanadaBilingualism in CanadaThe official languages of Canada are English and French, which "have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and Government of Canada" according to Canada's constitution...
- English-only movementEnglish-only movementEnglish-only movement, also known as Official English movement, refers to a political movement for the use only of the English language in official government operations through the establishing of English as the only official language in the United States...
- IsleñosIsleñosIsleño is the Spanish word meaning "islander." The Isleños are the descendants of Canary Island immigrants to Louisiana, Cuba, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and other parts of the Americas....
- History of the Spanish languageHistory of the Spanish languageThe language known today as Spanish is derived from a dialect of spoken Latin that developed in the north-central part of the Iberian Peninsula in what is now northern Spain. Over the past 1,000 years, the language expanded south to the Mediterranean Sea, and was later transferred to the Spanish...
- Languages in the United StatesLanguages in the United StatesEnglish is the de facto national language of the United States, with 82% of the population claiming it as a mother tongue, and some 96% claiming to speak it "well" or "very well." However, no official language exists at the federal level...
- List of U.S. cities with diacritics
- List of U.S. communities with Hispanic majority populations
- Spanish in the Americas
- French language in the United States
- Russian language in UkraineRussian language in UkraineRussian is a minority language in Ukraine It is the most common first language in Donbass and Crimea regions, the predominant language in large cities in the East and South of the country...
Resources
- http://www.spanishprofessors.com
- http://www.vistawide.com/languages/us_languages.htm
- http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0905275.html
- http://www.searchforthefacts.com/2009/09/do-we-have-an-official-language/